Thursday, May 22, 2008

I’ve never been a fan of rap/hip-hop.Just couldn’t get into it, but mainly because of the lyrics.Let’s face it, when you think of rap/hip-hop, you think of guys rapping about the less-than-savory things they like to do and who they’d do them with.I’ve always said that any type of music can be used for the furtherance of the gospel and for the glory of God.

Shai Linne, Timothy Brindle and others at Lamp Mode Recordings are doing an excellent job of changing my mind on the first point and solidifying my belief on the second.As their website says, “We rock truth all up in your stereo.”And truth is exactly what you’ll hear in their music.

I’ve posted a clip of Linne’s song “Jesus is Alive” from his newest album, “The Atonement” an album that centers entirely on the cross of Christ.Before you watch that clip, watch the following interview with Shai Linne in discussing the album.There’s more doctrinal truth in his rap than most other Christian music in stores today.Consider the following quote from the interview:

“One of the things I’ve noticed just as we’ve looked around at what’s been being released in terms of Christian hip-hop, the cross is the kind of thing that has become assumed but not proclaimed.… It’s like, okay, we already know this, we know that Jesus died for our sins.Now let’s move on to ‘whatever.’So, what happens is after awhile, you move on to the ‘whatever’ and you find yourself talking more about the ‘whatever’ than the actual cross that makes the ‘whatever’ meaningful.”